With
an area of 23,310 sqm,
Garden for Lingering In
is the best garden in
Suzhou as well as one of
the four most famous
gardens in China (the
others are: Summer
Palace in Beijing,
Mountain Resort of
Chengde and Humble
Administrator’s Garden
in Suzhou). It is
celebrated for its
artistic way of dealing
with the spaces between
various kinds of
architectural form.

Situated outside the
Cang Gate of Suzhou
city, the garden was
built in the 21st year
of the reign of Wanli
(1583AD) by Xu Taishi, a
bureaucrat, as his
private garden-residence
and named East Garden.
According to what the
famous literary man Yuan
Hongdao (1568 - 1610)
said in his A Record of
Gardens, the East Garden
at that time "has
magnificent multi-storey
front houses and rear
halls, and a range of
awe-inspiring stone
mountains built by the
well-known master Zhou
Bingzhong, resembling a
long scroll of landscape
painting."

Later the garden
belonged to the Lius in
the 59th year of the
reign of Qianlong (1794
A.D.) and was expanded,
repaired, and renamed
"the Hanbi Villa", while
popularly known as "Liu
Garden". In the 12th
year of the reign of
Tongzhi (1873 A.D.), it
was purchased, expanded
and repaired by the
Shengs, who gave it a
new name "Garden for
Lingering In", since
"lingering" in Chinese
sounds similar to "Liu",
the surname of the
former owner.

Today the garden is
separated into the
eastern, middle,
northern and western
parts. The middle part
features man-made
mountain and lake
scenery, resembling a
long scroll of
traditional Chinese
painting. The eastern
part is noted for its
happy groupings of
garden courts and
elegant buildings, the
western part the
enchantment of woody
hills, and the northern
part cottages with
bamboo fences and
idyllic scenes.

Artificial hill made
from Taihu rock is
always the main
component of Suzhou
gardens. The
6.5-meter-high
Cloud-Capped Peak in
this garden, as the
highest limestone in
classical gardens of
Suzhou, is believed to
have been left behind by
the imperial collector
of the Northern Song
dynasty. Weighed about 5
tons, the limestone is
supposed to have been
carried from Taihu Lake,
40km away from Suzhou
city.

Besides, the number of
stele in Garden for
Lingering In has never
been surpassed by any
other gardens in Suzhou.
Superbly inscribed with
the works of over 100
calligraphers in the
Jin, Tang, Song, Yuan,
Ming and Qing dynasties,
these invaluable steles
bring to light the
evolutionary course of
Chinese calligraphy in
the past 1,000 years.

Garden for Lingering In
is characteristic of the
classical gardens in the
south of the lower reach
of Yangtze and in1961 it
was listed as cultural
relics of national
importance.